THE DAYS BEFORE
by Donna McIntosh
Summary: Two ninteenyear olds get acquainted.


Title: THE DAYS BEFORE

Author: Brokeback Mountain

Pairing: Jack and Ennis

Rating: R

Warning: None

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Annie Proulx. I'm just borrowing them.

Summary: Two 19 year olds get acquainted.

THE DAYS BEFORE

Ennis Del Mar stomped the dust off his boots and walked into the

quiet little church. It was Saturday afternoon and the place was

deserted, so there was no one around to question him. He sat in the

last pew and thought about his parents, gone five years now. His

momma never missed a Sunday meeting and dragged his Pa and the kids

along whenever she could and they couldn't think of an excuse to get

out of it. She believed in all this fire and brimstone business. He

wasn't sure if he did or not. It was all a mystery to him but being

here, brought her memory back to him. She was a sweet and good

person; would give you the shirt off her back. Always there to help

out a friend or feed a stranger. Pa was OK too. Strict as hell, but

a fair and respected man.

The loss of them had turned his world upside down. Not only were

his parents gone, but within months their ranch was gone too and the

three of them were on their own. Sister found work in downtown Sage

and roomed in with a school mate of hers. His brother K.E. and he,

bummed around from job to job, ranching mostly; then K.E. got married

and moved to Signal and he was on his own. He had heard they were

hiring for ranch work near Riverton but when he got here, the job was

filled. He sat there trying to decide where to go next, when a sweet

little voice behind him spoke, "Excuse me. Are you here for choir

practice? Pastor Miller said it's been called off for today."

He stood up and turned to face her. She was the prettiest little

thing he had ever seen. Shoulder length brown hair and the biggest

brown eyes he had ever seen and the face of an angel. And there she

was standing there smiling at him.

"aahh. No. I just came in here to sit a minute," he said, holding

his hat in hands.

"Oh. OK. You're new around here, aren't you." She smiled at him.

"Yeah. Lookin for work. Heard they were hirin out at the Williams

place but got here too late, I guess. They got all the help they

need." He looked down at his boots to keep from staring at her.

"Ranchin all you know?" she asked. He looked up at her. "Cause if

it's just work you're lookin for, my daddy runs the Western Auto

store down the street and Manny our stock boy got throwed last week

rodeoin and won't be able to work for a while. He would welcome

someone to help out."

"That's mighty nice of you, Ma'am. I sure do need the work."

"Jackie, honey, he didn't mean it." Mrs. Twist took her son in her

arms and held him close; wiped his tears with her apron.

"Yes he did! He hates me! He's always hated me." He cried, leaning

into his mother's embrace.

"Honey, that's just the way he talks; now he doesn't hate you. I

promise you."

"You can't promise me that, Momma. I can tell by the way he looks at

me that he hates me; just like I can tell when you look at me that

you love me. I can tell!"

She held her son close to her and rocked him back and forth. Her son

was a sensitive soul, he always had been, but now at 14 it seemed he

was even more sensitive than ever. A fact her husband hated.

Couldn't stand that his son could stop in the middle of a work day

and pick a small wildflower and admire its beauty. Couldn't stand

that his son wanted to sing in the church choir.

"He's the meanest man I ever knew!" he exclaimed and rubbed the tears

from his eyes.

"C'mon now. Let's have no more talk about such things. Wash up now,

it's almost time for dinner." She kissed her son's forehead and left

his small room.

Jack managed to scrape up enough money, with his momma's help, to

enter the local rodeo and he found something there he had never found

before; acceptance. Rodeoers were good people. They liked having

the smiley faced boy around. And before long he was doing odd jobs

for them and when the rodeo left town, six weeks later, Jack went with

them. By the time he turned 18 he had finally gotten enough meat on his

skinny frame to try some bull riding. First ride was a piece of cake and he

took the prize money. It would be six months before he won another

dime and he ate a lot of dirt and took a lot of bruising and knocking

around in the mean time but at least there wasn't the old man around

telling him how worthless and good-for-nothing he was.

Ennis worked hard at the Western Auto store and roomed in the tiny

store room in the back. The work was hard and the hours were long but

Mr. Beers was a good man to work for an his daughter Alma ran the

cash register and spent a lot of time smiling at him so for the time

being, life was good. Mr. Beers took him home more times than not for

a proper meal with the family and he began to fill out a little. He

spent more and more time with Alma and when things started getting

serious between them, they decided to get married. The Beers were

good people, Riverton was a nice town, he felt like it would be a

good place to settle down. He was nineteen years old.

Manny came back to work and Ennis needed to find another job. He

heard about a job sheep-herding out of Signal. It was a just-for-

the-summer thing and would give them a nice little nest egg to get

started out with until he could find permanent work. The perfect

solution. He put in a call to his brother K.E. in Signal but found

they had moved off somewhere. He decided to go on anyway and threw a

shirt, some socks and underwear and his razor and toothbrush in a

paper sack and started hitching his way west.

Jack got up off the bed and pulled his jeans up. He went into the

bathroom and washed himself as best he could and stared at himself in

the mirror.

"That ole boy wasn't half bad for an old man." He thought. Had to be

at least 40! What did he care? He'd bought him a nice dinner at a

steak house, a couple of drinks and an hour or so in a motel room.

Hell, most of the guys he'd been with, they'd done it in the truck,

or in a gas station bathroom. Didn't much matter to him, but tonight

he would have a nice comfortable bed to sleep in. Sleeping in the

truck was getting old fast and he was barely making enough to eat and

buy gas for the truck.

He'd heard about a job herding sheep up in the mountains for the

summer and decided he'd give that a try. He'd worked some with sheep

before and they weren't all that bad. It had worked out pretty good.

There was just him and one other guy up there, an old man, about 50 or

so he'd guess. He was nice enough, did his fair share of the work

and liked being in the tent with him at night. He wasn't overly

eager about it though and only did him every two or three nights or

so.

Thought maybe he'd try that again this summer. It was pretty good

pay and he needed the money to get some work done on his truck.

Ennis stood leaning against the trailer waiting for this Mr. Joe

Aguirre to show up. He lit a cigarette and smoked a bit then put it

out and saved it for later. Smokes were expensive and he didn't want

to waste it.

Jack pulled into the drive way in front of Aguirre's trailer and got

out. He kicked the side of the truck and cursed it silently under

his breath. He looked over and saw one other fella standing there;

it wasn't the guy from last year. He was a little disappointed.

Took a second look and saw the guy wasn't much older than he was.

Started to go over but the guy looked down quick, like he wasn't too

eager to get friendly. OK. He could understand that. He went back

to his truck, got out his razor and started a quick shave using his

rear-view mirror. If he turned it just so, he could watch the

stranger. Hmmmmm He caught him looking over at him a few times.

Before he could think much more about it, Aguirre showed up.

Ten minutes later they were both employed and standing out front.

Jack introduced himself and held out his hand.

"Jack Twist." he said. "Ennis," he took Jack's hand and shook it.

"Your folks just stop at Ennis?" he asked smiling.

"Ennis Del Mar." he said shyly.

"Well c'mon Ennis Del Mar. Let me buy you a drink." He led the way

along the dusty street to the nearest bar.

They talked a bit about how they come to be there. Found out they

was both from ranch people, both done some rodeoing, both alone in

the world.

"You got a place to stay tonight?" Jack asked as they left the bar.

"Nah. Was gonna stay with my brother but found out he moved on.

Don't live here no more."

"You wanna go in on a room with me?" He lit a cigarette and offered

one to Ennis. He took it and let Jack light it for him.

"We can get a room for the night down the street. One with two beds,

I mean. Costs 'bout the same. Two of us goin in on it would half

the price."

"I ain't got much." Ennis said.

"Room's $12. Cost us each $6. It'd give us a warm bed for the night

and a place to shower with warm water. Won't be any of either of

that up on the mountain."

"OK. Sounds good."

The room was small but it had two full sized beds and a tiny

bathroom. They took turns showering and climbed each into their

beds. Jack had to have one last cigarette. "You don't snore, do

you?"

"No. Don't think so. Can't say for sure. Apologize in the morning

if I do." and he was off to sleep.

Jack laid there, left arm up and behind his head, right hand holding

his smoke. He glanced over at the sleeping form in the bed next to

his. "Seems awful young for 19. Can't hardly put two sentences

together. Bet he'd be good though; if a body could ever get him

turned on. I wonder..."

The End


End file.
